The present invention relates to moldable non-woven laminates and more particularly concerns moldable non-woven laminates that can be used for trunk liners for an automobile trunk compartment.
In the fabrication of automotive trunk liners, it is common to utilize an integrally molded fibrous trunk liner wherein the trunk liner is molded in such a manner that the sidewalls thereof are formed so as to extend upwardly and outwardly in a diverging manner relative to the center floor cover panel so as to resiliently engage the sidewalls of the trunk compartment when the sidewalls of the liner are biased inwardly toward an upright position when installed and mounted in a trunk compartment. This resilient engagement of the trunk liner with the walls of the trunk compartment facilitates the mounting of the trunk liner in the trunk compartment and the maintaining of the trunk liner in the installed position and engagement with the walls of the trunk compartment.
Generally, such a trunk liner is formed from a moldable felt applied to the backside of a non-woven fabric. This felt serves to impart shape retention and stiffness to the overall molded body upon the molding operation being completed. The upper surface is formed of soft fibrous material for an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The backside felt must be comprised of material that is capable of being thermoformed at temperatures that will not damage the look or feel of the upper surface material. For this reason, the upper surface material and the backside coating material are generally produced from dissimilar materials, thereby preventing trim or other waste from being reprocessed or recycled. It bas been estimated that between 20 and 40 percent of the material utilized to produce current trunk liners becomes waste material, which results in excessive production costs.
It is an important object of the present invention to produce a thermoformable non-woven laminate in which all of the materials of the laminate are compatible and are thus capable of being recycled.
It is another object of this invention to produce an integral molded trunk liner wherein the materials of the trunk liner are compatible and are thus capable of being recycled.
It is a further object of this invention to produce an integral molded trunk liner with increased bulk thickness and increased acoustical value.
Other and further objects, aims, purposes, features, advantages, embodiments, and the like will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the present specification, taken with the associated drawings, and the appended claims.
More particularly, in one aspect, the present invention relates to a moldable fibrous composite comprising a first layer comprising a non-woven fabric, a second intermediate layer comprising a thermoformable material, and a third layer comprising a non-woven fabric. In accordance with another aspect of this invention, the three layers of the composite of the present invention are compatible with each other in order to provide for recyclability of the fibrous composite. In accordance with this aspect, the first and third layers of the composite each comprise a non-woven fabric comprised of polypropylene fibers. A second layer comprises an extruded thermoplastic sheet comprised of polypropylene. In accordance with another aspect of this invention, a process is provided for producing a moldable fibrous composite comprising a first layer comprising a non-woven fabric, a second intermediate layer comprising a thermoplastic resin, and a third layer comprising a non-woven fabric.
In the drawings, further preferred embodiments and details of this invention are shown. These drawings should, however, not be interpreted to unduly limit the scope of this invention.